Russian president Vladimir Putin fired his entire cabinet staff on Tuesday, February 24, in a live television broadcast. The move, which came as a surprise to nearly all Russian political observers, is believed to have been Putin’s way of removing Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. The Russian constitution provides a way for the president to ask for the resignation of his entire cabinet, but not for a single member of it. Kasyanov, who was Prime Minister under previous Russian president Boris Yeltsin, was known to not be well-liked by Putin, though most analysts believed no action would be taken against him until after the Russian election in March.
An explosion ripped through the Solid Propellant Rocket Booster Plant at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India, on Monday, February 23, killing at least six workers. The chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), S. K. Dar, believes that a test propellant segment caught fire while being prepared for transport, and caused extensive damage to the plant, which makes the solid fuel necessary for rocket boosters. The segment that exploded was part of a test, and will not have any adverse effect on ISRO launch programs, though some launches may be delayed, according to Dar.
An earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale struck the African nation of Morocco on Tuesday, February 24. The quake, which struck in the early morning hours, destroyed homes up to twenty miles from the epicenter. By current estimates, between 300 and 450 people were killed and another 250 injured. The death toll may rise, however, as rescue efforts in some of the more remote areas were hampered by aftershocks, rain, and lack of equipment.
The rebels leading a coup against Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide have rejected a proposed power-sharing plan and claim to be gaining more and more support. Both the US and British governments have issued warnings to their citizens in Haiti, urging them to leave the country as soon as possible. Several US marines arrived in Haiti, not to assist in putting down the rebellion but to secure the US embassy in the capital city.
Pakistani troops launched an operation to track down al Qaeda and Taliban militants along the border with Afghanistan on Tuesday, February 24. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad reports that between 15 and 20 people were arrested in the first part of the offensive, which involved house-to-house searches in the Waziristan region. The Pakistani government reportedly received a tip-off about the presence of militants in the area, and set a February 20 deadline for surrender.